Skip to main content
All CollectionsContentContent Creation
How to Create/Edit an Event
How to Create/Edit an Event

Creating Events, Event Registration, Event URL, Link, Location

Maria Steinberg avatar
Written by Maria Steinberg
Updated over a week ago

Including Events inside your News Digest is a great way to get the word out about something your Subscribers might be interested in attending.

To create an Event, go to Content, then click the green Create Event icon (located in the left-hand menu).

To edit an Event that already exists, click the Pencil icon under the story image in your Content hub tables.

Once clicked, the Event Editor will open and you can begin to create or edit your Event.

Event Details

At the top of your Create Event page, you will see four fields where you can enter specific details about your event.

  1. Event Registration URL: In this field, enter the URL to the event registration where your Subscribers will go to register for the event. If a URL is entered in this field, Subscribers can click this link inside their News Digest or Blasts to be sent directly to the registration URL.

    Once the URL is entered, you can perform the following actions:

    • Check Link: If you want to check to see if your link is working, click Check Link. Clicking this will open your link in a new tab.

    • Link Tracking: Using the Link Tracking toggle, you have the option to turn link tracking on or off. Link tracking allows you to track who clicks your link with Google Analytics and other platforms.

  2. Event Location: In this field, you can type in the address/location of the event and Google will work to automatically generate the address as you are entering it. Select the address from the drop-down list once you see it.

    Once a location is entered, you can perform the following action:

    • Show Map to Users: You have the option to toggle Show Map to Users on or off. When toggled on, a link to a Google Maps pop-up with the pinned address will be added to the Event's Story Page, which your Subscribers can click to see the location.

  3. Start Date & Time: This is the date and time that the event will be starting. You can either enter the date and time manually, or you can click the blue calendar icon (located to the right of the text box) to select a date and time.


    Once the date and time are entered, you can perform the following action:

    • Show Calendar Link: You have the option to toggle Show Calendar Link on or off. When toggled on, your Subscribers can add this event to the online calendar of their choice.

      Please Note: If you need people to register for the event, we recommend toggling Show Calendar Link off so that your Subscribers don’t add the event to their calendar without registering first.

  4. End Date & Time: This is the date and time that the event will be ending. You can either enter the date and time manually, or you can click the blue calendar icon (located to the right of the text box) to select a date and time from the pop-up.

    • Important Days: After clicking the blue calendar icon, you can select a Start Date & End Date for your event. When viewing the calendar, Important Days will be noted in yellow. If you select a Start or End Date that falls on an Important Day, you will see an Important Day callout detailing the Important Day Name, Date, and Message for that day.

    • If this is an all-day event, you can toggle All Day on. This will remove the ability to set an End Date & Time because the Event will expire at midnight.


Author

Depending on whether or not your instance has Authors toggle on inside of Content > Controls, you may not see the Authors header.

Toggled Off: You will not see the Authors header. When toggled off, the Event created in your Instance will show as authored by your organization.

Toggled On: You will see the Authors header. When toggled on, you can use the drop-down list to select an author for your Content. The authors you can select from are the Author Profiles created inside Content Controls.

To read more about Content Authors or learn how to toggle Authors on/off inside Content Controls, check out these articles.


Title

You can add an Event title by typing in the field where it says Make it Memorable. When writing the title, you will have a maximum of 85 characters, and you will not be able to style or format the text.

This title can be seen in all the following places:

  1. At the top of the Event's Story Page.

  2. Inside of the Subscribers’ News Digest.

  3. On your Content Archive page.

  4. Pulled into the Content Block Element in Blasts.


Subtitle & Summary

Under the Title, you have the option to enter a Subtitle & Summary. Without a Subtitle or Summary, Subscribers will only see the Title, Event Details, and Story Image.

This text is used as the summary text in your News Digest and as the subtitle on Events in your Content Archive, and pulled in when using the Content Block Element in Blasts. When writing the Subtitle & Summary, you have a maximum of 250 characters, and you cannot style or format the text.

In the screenshot below, you can see what the Subtitle & Summary of your Content may look like inside of the News Digest (depending on your Subscribers layout preferences).

The Subtitle & Summary gives your Subscribers a good idea of the Event’s date, time, location, and purpose before clicking Register and viewing the Event page you have linked.


Body Text

Under the Subtitle & Summary section, you will see the place where you can enter the content that you would like included in the Event’s Story Page.

Inside the text editor, you have a variety of formatting and styling options in the tool bar. There are a lot of customization options here and we encourage you to check out all the tools at your disposal.

To learn more about the text editor capabilities, please review: Story Text Editor Overview.


Story Image

Your Event's Story Image is the image that represents your Event inside of the Subscribers’ News Digest, at the top of the Event Page, in Content Block Elements in Blasts, and on the Content Archive page.

You can add your Story Image by doing any of the following:

  • Drag and Drop your image file on your device into the Story Image upload box.

  • Browse: Select an image from your computer's local files.

  • Image Gallery: Select from an Image which has already been uploaded to your Image Gallery.

  • Import from URL: Paste the image URL where it says enter image URL.

The Story Image size is recommended to be 1500 x 1000px, or a 3 X 2 ratio.

Supported file types include:

  • .JPEG/.JPG

  • .PNG

  • .GIF

The maximum image upload size is 1600kb. The max file size for a .GIF file is 1 MB.

If an image is not added when published, when shared via News Digest, an image will be randomly selected from your Image Placeholders set under Settings > Branding.

Please Note: If an image is less than 150px wide, the image will be visible on the Story Page, but it will not be added to the News Digest. This is because anything smaller than 150px wide will become very pixelated inside the Digest.

Edit a Story Image

After an Image has been added to a Story, there are several options available refine or edit.

You can rename your Story Image and include updated alt-text. Alt-text provides descriptions of images for readers utilizing accessibility tools.

Hover your cursor over the image for additional options including:

Remove and replace the image

Click the Garbage can icon to remove the image, and reselect a new image.

Add to your Image Gallery

Click to save the image for future use in your Image Gallery. For more information, please review Add Images to the Image Gallery - Add From Content Story Images.

Before you click to Add To Gallery, we recommend that you review and update the Image Name and Alt-Text. By default, whatever is set as the Image Name and Alt-Text in the Story Image details will be saved to the gallery.

Crop your image

For more information, please review: How to Use the Image Cropper


Publish Dates

Under the Publish Dates header, you can select the date and time that your Event is published and a Circulation End Date. The Expiration Date utilizes your End Date & Time from your Event details.

If passed the Circulation End Date, it will not be sent in News Digests or be shared in other channel feeds. It will still be available when searching, for use in the Content Block Element in Blasts, and in the Content Archive.

If passed the Expiration date, it will not be made available to Subscribers in any channel, including the Content Archive. Events which were sent in a Blast or Digest which have expired will still be accessible from the links clicked in those emails.

Select your Dates in one of the following ways:

  • Manually input the date and time into the text box.

  • Use the blue calendar icon to select a date and time. When the calendar opens, you can select the date from the pop-up.
    Click the clock icon from the bottom of the calendar menu to select a time. By default, the time will automatically select your current time on your device.

When viewing the calendar, Important Days will be highlighted in yellow. If you select a Date that falls on an Important Day, you will see an Important Day callout detailing the Important Day Name, Date, and Message for that day.


Categories

Under the Categories header, you can select the Categories of interest that are related to the Event you created.

Categories are used to identify which pieces of Content best fit a Subscriber's interests. As Subscribers read more Content, our AI learns what they are interested in and will funnel more relevant Content into their News Digests.

To learn more, please review: Categories Explained.

When creating an Event, you will need to tag your Event with the appropriate Categories. You can tag your Event with as many Categories as you like by doing either of the following options:

  • Type in the Categories of your choice and select them from the populated drop-down options.

  • Select any of your Organization Categories that best fit this Event from the Category lists below the drop-down box. These are the Categories that your Subscribers can select interest in during the personalization process and they are set inside of your Content > Controls.


Distribution Settings

If you click the blue gear icon (located in the upper right-hand corner of your screen), your Event's Distribution Settings will open.

In the Distribution Settings, you can determine who will receive your Event, how, and when. There are a lot of options to review, so please continue reading: Story Distribution Settings.


Event Actions

Once you are done creating your Event, or you want to save it so you can finish later, you have the ability to preview your Event, save it as a draft, or publish it.

Below, each of the action options are explained:

  1. Preview: This will open a pop-up modal where you can view what your Event will look like on the Event's Story Page and inside the News Digest.

  2. Save as Draft: This will save your Event as a draft, where you can then view or edit it by going to the Content > Drafts page.

  3. Publish: Depending on your Team Member permissions, this button will do one of the following:

    • If you do have Approve Content permissions: Clicking Publish will move the Event to the Content > Approved page where it will become eligible for News Digests.

    • If you do not have Approve Content permissions: Clicking Publish will move the Event to the Content > Queue page for a Team Member with Approve Content permissions to approve and make it eligible for News Digests.


If you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to reach out to us at support@cerkl.com or use the support Chat toward the bottom right-hand corner of any cerkl.com page.

Did this answer your question?